The joy of Beethoven's 5th

By SUSAN L. RIFE

Sunday

Mar 30, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is one of the war horses of the classical orchestral repertoire, but it still presents delights and challenges to conductor, orchestra and audience that can make it a thrill to present, says Philip Mann, guest conductor for next weekend's final Masterworks concerts of the year for the Sarasota Orchestra.

Mann, who is beginning his fourth season as music director of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, described the symphony as "a wonderful way to launch a new relationship" with the Sarasota Orchestra and audience. "Hopefully I bring a new and hopefully different perspective on it."

Written between 1804 and 1808, the symphony is one of the most recognizable works of classical music, with its "da-da-da-DAH" four-note opening. German author and music critic E.T.A. Hoffmann desc0bed it as the "indescribably profound, magnificent symphony in C minor." It was included on a recording sent into space in 1977 on the twin Voyager probes.

"It has all the hallmarks of a great masterpiece," said Mann. "From an artist's standpoint, from a conductor's standpoint, every time you open the score anew you'll find something extraordinary about it, something you haven't noticed in the past, sometime subtle and sublime. At the same time I think it activates some of the most basic human emotions.

"The visceral, almost violence, of the opening chords, and the journey it takes you on through the C minor to the triumphant C major has almost universal human appeal."

The Fifth is such an important part of the repertoire that musicians "do it for our whole careers," said Man.. "It's one of the first works we learn."

Despite the big opening and the repetitive four-note theme, the Fifth is "not flashy but really stretches on orchestra's chops," said Mann, "especially in the musicians' relationships with each other. When it's done very, very well, it's powerful and sublime."

The Masterworks program Friday through Sunday will open with another Beethoven composition, the Overture to "Egmont," which Mann described as "a different side of Beethoven."

"From the opening intonation notes, you know you're in a very much more dramatic, in the theater sense, setting," said Mann.

The piece premiered in 1810.

"There's a lot of emotion packed within a tight eight minutes," said Mann. "It's also a setting that really shows off an orchestra and the talents and virtuosity that are represented within the ranks of the orchestra. For me it's a place to explore sound and color in a classical context, the dark and rich and powerful sounds that are required from the strings."

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